Good morning.
As President Joe Biden gave his Oval Office address last night, explaining his decision to step out of the presidential race, I thought about a theme that frequently emerges in my conversations with CEOs. Regardless of political affiliation, in companies big or small, business leaders often cite some regulatory challenge—whether it’s the FTC ban on noncompete agreements and antitrust probes or proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains and executive orders that result in volatile policy swings. With the speed of climate change, disruption and AI, some also talk about the need for regulatory clarity and guidelines.
So I was fascinated to see that 46% of respondents in our latest Fortune/Deloitte CEO Survey ranked regulation and taxes as the business areas likely to be impacted by the U.S. election. (Only 27% ranked the hot-button topic of immigration among their top three.) When asked what external issues they expect to influence or disrupt their business strategy over the next 12 months, CEOs cited geopolitical instability, inflation and regulation as the top three concerns.
This is the 13th edition of a CEO survey that we’ve done in collaboration with Deloitte since the summer of 2020. (Deloitte sponsors this newsletter.) More than 80 CEOs from the Fortune 500 and select companies responded, with the results fielded in June, before recent events like the attack on former President Donald Trump and Biden’s decision to not seek reelection.
Overall, CEOs reported mounting pessimism about their respective industries’ futures. That said, the majority have some degree of confidence in their company’s ability to navigate external disruptors. And here’s a fun fact: Almost one in five CEOs now regularly uses generative AI tools as part of their job. Change starts at the top.
You can read more about the survey results here.
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Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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